Bragan reads ALL THE BOOKS in 2013, part 4

No books finished for October yet, but I figured I'd go ahead and get my new thread started for the final quarter of the year.

And since I've been doing it on the previous threads, let's take on more look back at the Reading Story Thus Far!

From the first quarter:

JANUARY:
Cold Days by Jim Butcher
Aetheric Mechanics: A Graphic Novella by Warren Ellis
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer
What Would MacGyver Do?: True Stories of Improvised Genius in Everyday Life edited by Brendan Vaughan
Christine by Stephen King
ChronoSpace by Allen Steele
Inflight Science: A Guide to the World from Your Airplane Window by Brian Clegg
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce
The Walking Dead Chronicles: The Official Companion Book by Paul Ruditis

FEBRUARY:
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell
The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't by Stephen Colbert
The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth
Holmes and Watson by June Thomson
The Hour Before Morning by Arwen Spicer
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships by Clifford Nass, with Corina Yen
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Simon's Cat in Kitten Chaos by Simon Tofield
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

MARCH:
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee
Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Complete Zombies vs Robots by Chris Ryall & Ashley Wood
The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn by John Bellairs
The Vacuum Cleaner: A History by Carroll Gantz
The 1984 World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary by Neil Corry, Jacqueline Rayner, Andrew Darling, Kerrie Dougherty, David John and Simon Beechcroft
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits by John D. Barrow

The second quarter:

APRIL:
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
Economix: How Our Economy Works (And Doesn't Work) in Words and Pictures by Michael Goodwin, illustrated by Dan E. Burr
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Steven Baxter
Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner
Reached by Allie Condie
The Bible According to Mark Twain: Irreverent Writings on Eden, Heaven, and the Flood by America's Master Satirist by Mark Twain, edited by Joward G. Baetzhold & Joseph B. McCullough
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet by Ramez Naam
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
If People Were Cats by Leigh W. Rutledge
Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson

MAY:
My Life As a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
The Wild West on 5 Bits a Day by Joan Tapper
Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams
Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures by Carl Zimmer
The 1988 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale by Odette Beane
Britten and Brülightly by Hannah Berry
Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick
Lost Encyclopedia by Paul Terry and Tara Bennett
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Asteroid Rendezvous: NEAR Shoemaker's Adventures at Eros edited by Jim Bell and Jacqueline Mitton
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

JUNE:
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank
The Infernals by John Connolly
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Super Pop!: Pop Culture Top Ten Lists to Help You Win at Trivia, Survive in the Wild, and Make It Through the Holidays by Daniel Harmon
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV edited by Alfred Hitchcock
Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian

And the third quarter:

JULY:
The Skinner by Neal Asher
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
The California Roll by John Vorhaus
Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Permanent Emergency: Inside the TSA and the Fight for the Future of American Security by Kip Hawley and Nathan Means

AUGUST:
Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash by Ogden Nash
The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin
Machine of Death edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, & David Malki
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin
Doctor Who: Shada by Gareth Roberts
Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe by Greg M. Epstein
Fiend by Peter Stenson
Breakpoint: Why the Web Will Implode, Search Will Be Obsolete, and Everything Else You Need to Know About Technology Is in Your Brain by Jeff Stibel
Blood Lite edited by Kevin J. Anderson
The Avengers: The Inside Story by Patrick Macnee, with Dave Rogers
Ring by Stephen Baxter

SEPTEMBER:
Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic by Elizabeth Little
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen Jay Gould
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future by Richard Martin
Redshirts by John Scalzi

This year seems to have sped by, as always.

I love the variety in your reading.

>2 mkboylan:: It always does speed by, and somehow I never do get to all the books I'm wanting to read! But I do like variety...

Now, on to the first book of the quarter!

103. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 edited by Mary Roach



Whether this collection truly represents the best science and nature writing of 2010 or not, I couldn't say, but I certainly can say that it's an interesting, generally high-quality collection of articles and essays on a variety of topics, from black-market kidney sales to same-sex albatross couples to the importance of cleaning up space junk. It is skewed a fair bit towards biology, medicine, and the environment, with a low proportion of hard science pieces, but that's not a complaint, merely an observation. And I can also say that I'm kicking myself for only just now discovering this series and am considering going back and picking up the volumes from earlier years.

Rating: 4/5

It would be really interesting to see the different approaches by the different editors. As I was clicking through to the series page I thought that David Quammen would probably be my dream editor, and it turns out he edited the very first one!

I gather that a bunch of articles are nominated, and then the editor makes the final selections, and it does occur to me to wonder how much the tastes of the editor flavor the results. A fair number of the pieces in this one do have a slightly quirky feel to them that seems a tad bit Mary Roach-ish, and I'm curious now how true that is for the other editors. Yet another reason to want to read more of the back volumes! And Quammen seems like a great selection to me, too. The only thing of his I've read was Natural Acts, but I remember really liking that.

I have the 2012 Best American "Mystery Stories", "Non-required Reading", "Science and Nature Writing", "Essays" and "Short Stories" on my Kindle. I think I may have the 2011 versions of some of them, as well. There is just so much that I want to read, and the list is getting longer and longer. I thought that being retired would give me oodles of reading time. For some reason, that hasn't happened. I have a lot more time than I did before, but life just seems to have so many distractions.

I've also got the 2012 "Nonrequired Reading," and the best short stories volume from, for some reason, 2006, neither of which I've read yet. I also have The Best American Science Writing 2012, but apparently that's a different series? I'm a little confused by that, actually.

And somehow, there never ever seems to be enough reading time, no matter how much time you think you should have. It's one of the sad laws of life.

104. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl



A kids' classic that holds up remarkably well when re-read at the age of 42. It's true, Mr. Wonka should probably be investigated by several federal agencies devoted to hiring practices, industrial safety, and food safety, but that doesn't stop him from being wonderfully ridiculous or ridiculously wonderful. Besides, who doesn't enjoy watching a spoiled brat get pushed into a garbage chute by trained squirrels? Fun stuff, and not just because it makes me nostalgic for my childhood.

Rating: 4/5

When my kids used to let me we would have "family reading time" and I would read aloud to them. That was the first one we read, followed by Charlie and the Glass Elevator. I love Roald Dahl. He is a wickedly clever writer. Who else could write (supposed) children's stories and Lamb to the Slaughter, my absolute favorite short story. I think that says something not too nice about me though. ;)

Those are truly excellent "family reading time" choices! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory almost makes me wish I had kids so I could read it to them. Almost. And I still have my childhood copy of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, which I read over and over and over as a kid, even though the Voracious Knids seriously scared me for reasons I do not now understand.

He certainly wrote some stuff that was definitely not for little kids, too. I think some of his short stories scarred me for life when I read them far too young.

105. Installing Linux on a Dead Badger and Other Oddities by Lucy A. Snyder



I suppose this counts as a short story collection, although only the last three pieces are traditional stories. The rest of the book consists of fake news features (or, in the case of the title piece, a technical manual), all of which seem to be set in the same universe: one where technology and necromancy have become intertwined, where zombies can be controlled by computer, and where corporate IT is outsourced to demons. The humor is a bit variable, and may work best if you're a hardcore computer geek (which I'm not, exactly), but the best bits are brilliantly funny, and the entire thing (all 101 pages of it) would be worth it just for the satirical piece about relatives of dying people signing them up to labor after death in zombie sweatshops to cover their medical bills.

Rating: 4/5

Oh dear God you come up with the best stuff!

LOL! I have an awesome TBR Pile. Thoroughly out of control. But awesome.

relatives of dying people signing them up to labor after death in zombie sweatshops to cover their medical bills.

LOL!!!!

>13 mkboylan: Ditto what Merrikay said.

>15 avidmom:: Yes, I was literally laughing out loud at that one!

106. Thorns by Robert Silverberg



This odd little 1960s SF novel has three main characters: Burris, a space traveler who was kidnapped and experimented on by aliens who made surgical "improvements" to his body that have left him grotesque-looking and frequently in pain. Lona, a seventeen-year-old girl who was the subject of a medical experiment in which a hundred egg cells were taken from her and used to create a hundred babies she's never seen. And Chalk, an obscenely wealthy man who psychically feeds off the physical and emotional pain of others, and who hatches a plan to get Burris and Lona together and then watch their relationship self-destruct, for the entertainment of the masses and his own personal gratification.

My feelings about this one are extremely mixed. To begin with Silverberg is much more of a stylist than most SF authors, and in general I like his writing, but this one feels as if it's balancing precariously between "well written" and "pretentiously written." For me, it mostly comes down on the right side, but some of the euphemisms he uses in the sex scenes are pretty laughable.

As for characterization... Burris is a well-drawn, complex character, and his relationship with Lona at times feels almost painfully realistic as it deteriorates. But Lona herself feels less like a real, human woman and more like a man's idea of a certain type of woman viewed from the outside, even thought\ parts of the story are told from her point of view. And while Burris' relationship to his new body and his personal pain are decently explored, Lona's reactions what was done to her are rather shallowly rendered and never examined too closely. It's like it's just sort of naturally taken for granted that, well, she's a woman and of course she's emotionally devastated by the thought that she can't nurture her own babies, and how much examination does that idea really need? Which thought makes me roll my eyes. A lot.

Then there's the ending, which is thematically satisfying, I suppose, but feels implausible and tacked-on, in terms of plot logic.

All of which sounds really, really negative, but the truth is, it was at least an interesting read, and it did hold my attention. It's also true, though, that this is definitely not the first Silverberg novel I would recommend.

Rating: 3.5/5

107. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel



A memoir in graphic novel format about Alison Bechdel's experiences growing up with her father: a difficult, damaged man who harbored secrets about his conflicted sexuality, and who jumped in front of a truck at the age of forty-four. I found it tremendously intimate and thoughtful and affecting, and by the end, I was honestly rather choked up. The graphic novel form works remarkably well, too, with Bechdel's childhood diary entries and snippets of her father's letters integrated smoothly with the simple, well-drawn black-and-white illustrations. And for a memoir told in such a visually oriented style, it's also a remarkably literate one, as Bechdel attempts to connect with and understand her English teacher father through the reading they shared. Definitely recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5

I love Bechdel's stuff - all of it!

I really must read more of her. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For has been on my wishlist for quite a while now.

I especially love that one! My library had it!

I'm trying to think whether I know the Alison Bechdel or not. Anyway, Fun Home sound like a great graphic book.

>22 dchaikin:: You may have heard her name in the context of the Bechdel test.

That's it! Thanks, I feel much better now.

You're welcome. :)

I note that Thorns was published in 1967 (you can almost tell that from the cover art) and certainly a lot of SF from that period feels a little dated. The premise looks very interesting, but if the story did not work out very well then I can see your reasons for not enthusing over it.

>26 baswood:: Interestingly, I think it felt less dated to me than a lot of other SF from the period. Yes, there were a few little things that clearly were -- interstellar travel being invented sooner than is really plausible, and surrogate motherhood much later than actually happened -- but otherwise, not so much. Which maybe made its slightly iffy treatment of its main female character stand out more than it otherwise might, if I were going into it with a stronger sense of, "Well, it's a very dated sort of novel, so you have to expect some old fashioned attitudes." In any case, the premise was interesting. The execution was... interesting, but flawed.

108. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes



A short literary novel in which a man, late in life, looks back on his youth, a college relationship that ended badly, and the death of an old friend, examining his memories and, perhaps, gaining new perspectives. Yeah, OK, put like that, it sounds deathly dull, but, really, it's an extremely well-written, insightful look at life and memory, with what feels like an awful lot of truth in it. For me, it was probably also very much the right book at the right time. Twenty years ago, in my own youth, I imagine I would have found the protagonist and his preoccupations dull and annoying. Now, as I head full-tilt into middle age, I find him at times almost painfully easy to identify with.

My one complaint is that I'm really not at all sure how I feel about the ending, other than that it didn't work for me nearly as well as the rest of the novel. Which is the only reason I've given it four stars, rather than four and a half.

Rating: 4/5

109. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan



This YA novel, the first in a series, is set several generations into the zombie apocalypse, in an isolated, fenced-in village that has (so far) managed to hold out against the ravages of the dead.

I think, at this point, I may have read one too many YA post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels, because the standard formulae for these things have become way too obvious to me. And this story does tick off a lot of them. A stagnant society that limits its people's choices and holds secrets from them? Check. A young woman who struggles against those limitations and longs to know more about her world? Check. A teen romance, complete with love triangle and outside forces pressuring the people involved to pair up a certain way? Checkerooini! Although it's actually not so much a love triangle as an odd sort of love parallelogram, so at least that's somewhat creative.

But I feel I'm being way too hard on it by dwelling on the formulaic stuff... And it's not even that I think the formula is bad. I think stories about young people questioning the societies they live in and their places in them are great for teens, really; these are things they should be doing themselves. But I can't help finding my awareness of it distracting. Which is unfair, as this novel is actually a pretty good example of the kind of thing it is. Some mildly stilted dialog aside, the writing is very smooth, and the story really did pull me right along. And while I have some small quibbles with the world-building -- mostly involving the protagonist knowing words and concepts she's unlikely ever to have encountered -- I did like the setting and the premise. (I may perhaps be getting tired of teen dystopias, but I am somehow not yet tired of zombies.) More than that, it actually does depart from the usual formula at the end, in a way that surprised me very much.

In any case, I'm interested enough that I'm sure I'll get around to reading the next book in the series eventually, but I'm not feeling any huge desire to rush out and buy it.

Rating: I'm having such a hard time rating this. Call it a somewhat stingy 3.5/5

Oh be generous instead and give it a half point for the wonderful title!

I very nearly did, actually. Because, yes, truly, is that not the best title for a zombie story ever?

:) Yes it is!

110. Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries by Jon Ronson



A collection of articles by Jon Ronson, in which he interviews the members of Insane Clown Posse, goes through Stanley Kubrick's old boxes, attends a UFO conference with a British pop star, visits a town where it's always Christmas and a group of teenagers were arrested for planning a mass shooting, discusses the surprising number of people who disappear from cruise ships each year, investigates a small religious sect whose members all volunteer to donate kidneys to strangers, and generally pokes his nose into lots and lots of weird and fascinating corners of modern life.

Some of this stuff is amusingly quirky. Some of it is really quite disturbing. In a surprising number of cases, those two things blur together in strange and interesting ways. Whatever the case, Ronson presents it all to us with a sort of quiet, low-key bemusement that somehow makes it all the more compelling.

4/5

Tired of teen dystopias - but not zombies. LOL! Sometimes zombies are easier to deal with. ;)

Forest of Hands and Teeth sounds like a zombified version of The Hunger Games.
I agree with Merrikay - it should get some award for the title alone!

OH, Lost at Sea sounds great!!!
My son loves Kubrick movies. I would read it just to tell him what Kubrick had in his boxes!

>34 avidmom:: Zombies are easier to deal with! And they actually do genuinely scare me. And make me think pretentious-but-interesting thoughts about life and death and stuff. :)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is, in many ways, a very different book from The Hunger Games, but it's possible to look past all the specific details and see a lot of similarities in its basic makeup, not just to The Hunger Games, but to Ally Condie's Reached trilogy, and (in at least some respects) to Lois Lowry's The Giver, and probably to other examples of the genre I've read and am not remembering right now. But, yes, I do sort of want to pin a medal on that title!

Kubrick's boxes are, apparently, fascinating. The guy kept everything, and organized it idiosyncratically, but meticulously.

Yay my library has Lost at Sea

>36 mkboylan:: Excellent! I really do recommend it.

111. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt



The year is 1851, and professional killers Eli and Charlie Sisters set out from Oregon to California to do one more dirty job for their boss. They experience some bumps along the journey, however, and it doesn't end up going quite the way they expect.

It's an rather offbeat novel -- somehow, I kept imagining it as a Coen Brothers film -- with a very dry, dark sense of humor and a surprisingly poignant feel to it, especially at the end. And narrator Eli is an extremely well-drawn character: a hardened killer with a sentimental streak who discovers a strong attachment to his ailing horse and an enthusiasm for dental hygiene.

I wasn't always entirely sure how I felt about this book while I was in the middle of it, but ultimately it's a well-written, thoughtful, occasionally affecting story that was also a very fast read.

Rating: 4/5

(Also, man, if The Forest of Hands and Teeth deserves some kind of award for its title, surely this one does for its cover art.)

Agreed. That cover art is wicked cool!!!!

Sounds like a great story too.

It was good. Possibly not everybody's cup of tea, but very much worth a read, I think.

The Sisters Brothers cover is perfect. Of course, the paperback edition was generic and boring.



I mean, it's not terrible. But when you have a masterpiece, why would you tack up a poster of a kitten hanging in a tree instead?

>41 RidgewayGirl:: That's not an inherently terrible cover, I suppose, but it is terrible by comparison, and it's even more terrible when you consider the fact that, assuming those are supposed to be the eponymous brothers, it looks nothing like them. Well, I suppose one of them might be Charlie, who isn't described very closely, other than as having dark hair. But do you see a really big, tall, overweight, freckled blond guy on that cover? 'Cause I sure don't. I suppose it's possible that it's meant to be some of the other characters in the book, for some unfathomable reason, but it doesn't look anything like any of them, either.

Two words: stock photo.

>43 RidgewayGirl:: Those are two sad and annoying words, really. I mean, they couldn't try a little harder than that?

Whenever I see that first cover and read the title I think it a couple of monks and that is what the book is about.

>45 mkboylan:: I don't think those are monk hats, though. :)

Ridgeway Girl, I suspect that may be one of those different country = different cover things. My paperback cover is the cover in 111. I hadn't thought of monks; I had looked at is at two guys lurking, not very well at that. It was a great book.

112. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston



This is the bestselling non-fiction account of the mysterious history of the Ebola virus and of an outbreak of what appeared to be an airborne variant among monkeys in a facility outside Washington DC, which scared the pants off pretty much everybody when it was first published back in the early 90s. Everybody but me, that is, because for some reason it took me this long to finally get around to reading the thing.

Well, I can report that it's still really freaking scary. It is, in fact, terrifying and horrific and deeply fascinating, and so gripping that I truly had difficulty putting it down to go to bed (and not just because I was mildly worried that it might give me nightmares). And now I don't think I'm ever going to be able to look at any of those plague-wipes-out-humanity post-apocalyptic science fiction stories the same way again. That scenario is way, way more plausible than I really want to think about.

Rating: 4.5/5

Wait until you catch a cold. Ebola will be the first thing that occurs to you. At least it does to me.

Oh, god, yes, this possibility had already occurred to me. Because, of course, the first symptom of Ebola is a headache, and I'm rather prone to headaches... And a little bit prone to hypochondria.

On the positive side, I've found that thinking about this sort of thing helps to put my real problems in perspective. There's a lot of annoyances in my life at the moment, but every time I start to worry about something right now, I think to myself, "Oh, well, at least I don't have Ebola!" and feel more cheerful. :)

113. Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543 by Zach Weinersmith



A collection of cartoons from the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. SMBC is my very favorite webcomic. It's full of smart, thoughtful, offbeat, and often very, very geeky humor. This compilation, being science-themed, features some of the very smartest and geekiest comics to have appeared on the website, as well as a small section of all-new comics, many of which were originally rejected as a little too geeky for the website, hard as that is to believe. It also includes a bonus section featuring little anecdotes, also in comics form, from various scientists and science-y people. I enjoyed it immensely, and even though I must have already seen most of these pieces before, I still laughed out loud a lot.

Rating: 4.5/5

Headed to the website. Sounds fun.

You probably have to have a certain kind of sense of humor for it to appeal, but, boy, does it work for me!

Yes but I'm with you. Shared a few on my fb.

Yay! Yeah, if that's the kind of humor you like, SMBC definitely delivers! Although I suppose I was perhaps just a smidge too enthusiastic in the review when I called it "my very favorite webcomic." I might have to give the edge to xkcd, really. But SMBC is right up there with it.

I love that one also and probably got it from you on LT.

I am very happy to evangelize both of those websites. :)

The Hot Zone is good stuff, or I thought so back when I read it (1996). No clue why I haven't read more by Preston - I have First Light and The Wild Trees on my wishlist.

>51 bragan: OMG! I can't tell you how many times my youngest has yelled "Mom, come here! Read this!" and it's a SNBC comic. I must, must, must get him this book for Christmas!!!!

bragan, you rock! :)

Incidental Comics also has its moments, but I'm a Hark a Vagrant girl.

I really loved Wild Trees. Sure seemed to get mixed reviews. It's one of my all time favorites.

>58 dchaikin:: Oh, I hadn't even realized, somehow, that Preston was the same person who wrote The Wild Trees.! That was also fantastic. First Light is going to have to go onto my wishlist, too.

>59 avidmom:: I think there are a couple of other SMBC collections out, as well. (Which I really must pick up sometime.) This one only just came out and might not be widely available yet. I got a copy hot off the presses for participating in the kickstarter to fund its publication. So, hey, maybe I do rock. :)

>60 RidgewayGirl:: I've heard lots of praise for Hark, a Vagrant, but I think the one or two times I went and looked at it, I didn't quite get what it was about. Maybe I should give it another chance. Incidental Comics I'm not sure I've even heard of.

114. USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series edited by Johnny Temple



Akashic books has an extensive series of these "noir" anthologies, each set in a different city or region. As the title suggests, this volume features selected standout stories from the previous books, excluding the ones set in places outside the US.

As with any collection of stories, I liked some of these better than others, but on the whole it's an extremely high-quality anthology. (And, at 500+ pages, quite a meaty one, as well.) Some of these pieces are heavy on the plot, but I'd say most of them put more emphasis on character and atmosphere and a sense of place. Pretty much all of them are well-written. And they share a remarkably consistent feel. These are stories about the downtrodden, the damaged, and the corrupt, of people who strive hopelessly for something better or who suffer quietly under their burden of desperation until it bursts forth into violence, people who fall prey to the ugliness around them or give in and become part of it. It's actually given me a new, much more well-defined sense of exactly what that word "noir" means. Because, clearly, this is what it means.

Definitely recommended, if this sort of thing sounds at all like something you'd be interested in. I might recommend not reading it through too quickly, though, as it can get pretty darned depressing.

Now, I just want to know when they're going to think of my home state and come out with a New Mexico Noir. Come on, guys! Breaking Bad has left a large gap to fill!

Rating: 4/5

(Note: This was an ER book from the September batch. And, boy, did they get it to me quick!)

Sounds good. I always think of Ian Rankin as a good example of that sort of noir - not in the style of writing, but in the themes of his work.

ETA: sadly no "Scottish Noir", but exciting to see that the London Noir is edited by Cathi Unsworth, will have to look out for that.

I haven't read any Ian Rankin, but I know I've heard good things about him. Maybe one day.

I've read Manhattan Noir and Manhattan Noir 2 and found them quite mixed (disappointing because they were edited by Lawrence Block); the second one was better because it was called "Classics" and they were classics for a reason. And I got bogged down in St. Petersburg Noir. So probably won't go for this collection . . .

I did wonder how representative the stories in USA Noir were of the quality of the anthologies generally. If they're selecting the best from the entire series, it's certainly possible that a lot of bad stuff got sieved out. Still, it left me with a decidedly favorable impression. I'm thinking I might pick up New Jersey Noir sometime, that being the only setting so far that I've actually lived in.

115. A Slave No More by David W. Blight



In 2003, two separate, unconnected manuscripts were found, both featuring the personal memoirs of a slave who escaped to freedom during the Civil War and later settled in the North. One was by a man called John Washington, who joined up with the Union army when it reached Fredericksburg (his white masters having all run off and hid). The other is by one Wallace Turnage who, as a teenager, ran away no fewer than five times to escape beatings, finally achieving success on the fifth attempt.

Both are included in this book... although not until the end. First, historian David Blight starts off by telling us the story of how the manuscripts came to light, then goes through the main events of each narrative, providing historical context for everything. He also, as much as is possible, traces the later histories of the two men and their families, and describes the times and places they lived in after the war. Then he concludes with some more general historical details about the emancipation of the slaves and its immediate consequences. After all that, I was starting to get a little tired of listening to Blight and eager to finally hear these two men speak for themselves. But all of that background was interesting, and ultimately very useful for properly understanding and appreciating these personal narratives.

The narratives themselves are included unedited, complete with the idiosyncratic spelling and grammar of people who had no access to formal education. (Both of these men, it seems, essentially taught themselves to read and write, with the haphazard help of whoever they could enlist to teach them. So, far from disparaging their spelling, I'm deeply impressed that they managed to attain literacy at all.) They're predictably fascinating pieces of writing, in that they provide a very human, very personal glimpse into a particularly awful, and particularly important, bit of American history. But they're also surprisingly engaging stories. Turnage describes his as an account of his "adventures and persecutions," and it is indeed full of both of those things. Washington's story is a bit more sedate, but features a wonderfully sly sense of humor that makes me think he must have been the kind of guy who the grandkids would actually ask to ramble on about his life for them.

It's definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the Civil War or the history of slavery in America. Or for Americans in general, really, as we should all be aware of the presence of stories like this in our past.

Rating: 4/5

116. Year Zero by Rob Reid



Aliens have been spying on humanity since the 1970s. And while they don't have a terribly high opinion of our culture in general, they really like our music. They really, really like our music. Turns out we're the only species in the universe that's any good at all at that particular art form, to the extent that even our schlockiest TV theme songs can make the average alien swoon with ecstasy. So, needless to say, they've spent a lot of time listening to our songs. And making copies. Lots of copies. And now, they've suddenly discovered the human concept of copyright law, which they feel morally bound to obey... meaning humanity is now owed literally all of the money in the universe. But there are some people who think it would be nice if humanity were to quietly wipe itself out, so that no one will have to pay up.

Based on the premise, and the buzz I heard about this novel when it first came out, I was expecting a really smart, sharp satire. On that score, I must say, I was a little disappointed. There is some satire here, but it's rather uneven in its effectiveness, and mostly the humor is more on the "silly romp" end of things. Sometimes a little too silly, really. Still, it was fairly amusing, and I did chuckle out loud a number of times. So, not bad, but not quite what I was expecting or entirely in the mood for.

Rating: 3.5/5

>115 bragan: & 116 I'll have to put A Slave No More on the list. The idea of Year Zero cracks me up ....

117. The October Country by Ray Bradbury



Bradbury is best known as a writer of science fiction, but most of the stories in this collection qualify as horror of one kind or another. It's a very effective collection of horror, in fact, largely because, over and over, it forces the reader to look mortality squarely in the face. "The Next in Line," for instance, features a description of mummified corpses in a Mexican cemetery that I'm pretty sure is going to haunt me for quite a while, not because it's gross or Halloween-scary, but because there's no escaping the awful, certain knowledge that one day, this will be you. And then there's "Skeleton," featuring a man freaking out at the realization that there is a skeleton inside him, which had me squirming uncomfortably in my chair feeling acutely, distressingly aware of my own skull and kneecaps. Some of the stories are more subtle, and some less so, but as a whole, it's a collection that really gets under your skin. So to speak.

Rating: 4.5/5

(By the way, this book also features the single most freakishly disturbing piece of cover art I have ever seen. I had to keep turning it face-down when I wasn't reading it so that I wouldn't have to look at it. Or perhaps to stop it from looking at me.)

Nice review of The October Country perfect Halloween reading. Those stories really do get under your skin - I think it's time for a re-read.

It seems like a very re-readable collection.

Too bad Year Zero disappointed as it sounds like a fun idea.

>74 mkboylan:: Possibly it was just disappointing to me (at least a little) because my expectations and mood were wrong.

Nice review of A Slave No More, Betty!

Thanks!

118. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception by Charles Seife



Numbers can have a remarkable effect on our brains. Attach a number to some claim or assertion, and suddenly it seems much more convincing and rigorous. But that can be a dangerous illusion; bogus statistics and bad mathematical reasoning can all too easily be used to mislead, to distort or misrepresent reality. And when people like lawyers and politicians use numerical trickery, the results can be extremely damaging, indeed.

This book explores many of the ways in which numbers and mathematical techniques can be misused, from failing to acknowledge the margin for error inherent in any kind of measurement, to cherry-picking only the results that support the result you want, to just plain making stuff up. And it provides lots of specific examples, mostly from the US political arena. There is, for example, a long discussion of vote counting, reaching the ultimate conclusion -- which seems startlingly obvious in retrospect -- that the only mathematically justifiable conclusion to the Bush/Gore presidential election would have been to call it a draw. Also worth noting are the somewhat simplified but very useful look at how bad risk assessment led to the subprime mortgage crisis, and an extensive explanation of why polls are often nowhere near as useful or definitive as the media like to think.

This is an interesting and important topic, and Seife covers it in a way that's very clear and easy to understand, without requiring any particular background in mathematics. And while he often judges those who engage in this kind of pseudo-mathematics for their own political gain quite harshly, he is pretty non-partisan about it, seeing plenty of this sort of thing from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Rating: 4/5

Sounds like a fun read.

It actually was kind of fun. Very readable, with a bit of a sense of humor in among all the anger at annoying politicians and bad mathematics. :)

I have a weakness for books that show how people misuse math and statistics, and this sounds like a good one.

Well, the title alone is priceless, right?

>71 bragan: "Skeleton" is my sentimental favorite Bradbury story! It was in a collection called Vintage Bradbury which I read when I was a young teen, and that story fascinated me.

>81 rebeccanyc:: It is a pretty good one. It takes aim at some very deserving targets, and I was really impressed by how simple and lucid all the mathematical explanations were.

>82 mkboylan:: I think the title is the main thing that caught my attention and made me want to read it in the first place. It really is perfect!

Seife also invents a lot of other amusing terms for different kinds of "proofiness," which range from clever to kind of silly, but that one was just inspired.

>83 avaland:: It's kind of amazing how much that story got to me. And the ending was fun, in its own bizarre, freaky way.

119. The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) by Ellen Raskin



I have, off and on lately, been going back to books I loved as a kid and giving them a re-read from an adult's perspective. This is always an iffy proposition, of course. Not all of them will hold up well, and if you find you don't like them anymore, not only have you just read something you didn't enjoy, but you've also gone and tarnished a childhood memory. Fortunately, somewhat to my surprise, I've had a pretty good success rate. I might not enjoy these books quite as intensely as I did way back when, but plenty of them turn out to still be entertaining. And this book, which I remember adoring at the age of eight or so, is no exception.

It's the story of one Mrs. Carillon, who was married to a boy named Leon -- he later decided he'd rather be called Noel -- when they were aged five and seven, in order to secure the inheritance of a soup-factory-based family fortune. (I am sure this cannot have been legally binding, but never mind that detail.) The two did not see each other again for many years, and when a reunion was finally arranged, it was quickly ended by a boat accident. When poor Mrs. Carillon last saw the guy, he was bobbing up and down in the water, trying to tell her something she could only half-hear between all the blubs and glubs. Then, as soon as someone fished him out, he disappeared, and she spent the next twenty years searching for him (employing, it must be said, some rather dubious strategies).

Raskin really engages her readers in attempting to solve the puzzle of what happened to Leon (or Noel), teasingly hinting when she's just provided a clue, and outlining a strategy for attempting to guess the missing words of the message. I remember really throwing myself into that puzzle as a kid, and I still found the whole mystery plot unexpectedly engaging as an adult. (It probably helped that I had only very vague memories of what the solution was.) It's also just a fun story, with lots of humor ranging from the ridiculous to the sly to the utterly deadpan. Whether it'd have anywhere near the same appeal for anybody coming to it for the first time as an adult, I don't know. But I definitely recommend it for kids, and deem it well worth a revisit for those with childhood nostalgia for it.

Rating: 4/5

Sounds fun. Just sent it to my granddaughter. I love one click. Maybe I'll borrow it!

>85 bragan: What would be the age range suggested for this book? It sounds like fun.

>86 mkboylan:: Wow! I hope she likes it!

>87 NanaCC:: One of the other LT reviews suggests maybe 9-12 as an age range, which seems roughly right to me. Depends on the kid's reading level, of course. I think I read it at eight or nine, but I was always reading a bit above where I was theoretically "supposed" to be.

>88 bragan: That has been the case in our family too. Sometimes it is hard to find age appropriate reading when they read so far above their supposed level. You know they can read it, but will they understand or enjoy it. That sounds just about right for one of my grandchildren. Thank you.

>89 NanaCC:: Sounds like it might do, indeed! It's a particularly good book, I think, for bright kids who like puzzles, but not one that is likely to puzzle them in a frustrating or confusing way.

120. A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works by Jonathan Swift



This 59-page volume includes five of Swift's satirical writings. The well-known "A Modest Proposal" presents a clever plan to cure both poverty and overpopulation in Ireland and supply the rich with some tasty new treats in the process. "A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit" and "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity in England" deal with various religious topics. "The Battle of the Books" takes aim at the writers and thinkers of Swift's time who would disparage the ancient, classic authors, claiming to have done so much better themselves. There's also the tiny "A Meditation Upon a Broomstick," a deadpan parody that he inserted into a book containing a collection of mini-sermons as a practical joke. (The person he played the prank on, we're told, could not actually tell the difference.)

The continued fame of "A Modest Proposal" is unquestionably well-deserved. It's extremely readable, darkly funny, sharply incisive, and still sadly relevant. The other pieces in this collection were somewhat more difficult going, though, partly because Swift's old-fashioned writing style is rather wordy and convoluted, but mostly because the modern reader (or at least this modern reader) lacks a lot of the cultural context with which to properly appreciate them. This edition did include a number of helpful footnotes, but that's not nearly the same thing as watching a contemporary writer jumping into a debate you're familiar with and skewering people you know.

Still, despite all that, Swift's famous scathing wit does shine through. That's particularly true of "The Battle of the Books" in which he pulls no punches, utterly lambasting his targets with a jaw-droppingly impressive combination of highbrow erudition and low-down trash talk. There's no doubt about it: when Jonathan Swift disses you, you are dissed for the ages.

Rating: This one's hard to rate. It's abundantly clear that Swift was a five-star satirist in his time, but most of these pieces haven't aged all that well, and some of the points he's making honestly seem rather wrong-headed and quaint to me at this late date. Let's call it 4/5.

121. 11/22/63 by Stephen King



In the year 2011, high school English teacher Jake Epping learns that in the back of a diner owned by his friend Al, there is a portal to September of 1958. He also learns that it is possible to change the past. And while 1958 is too late to kill Hitler and too early to prevent 9/11, it is only a few years before the Kennedy assassination. And how much better might things -- Vietnam, for instance -- have been if Kennedy had lived? So Jake sets out to save the President's life, with a few stops to change some smaller and more personal things first. And while he's waiting for his chance, he sets about making a life in the past.

Let's start with the good things about this book; there are a fair number of them. The basic plot is pretty good. The time travel premise is intriguing, and King sets the rules for how it works up very carefully to allow him to tell the story he wants to tell. Some of those rules are implausible -- he justifies a lot of ridiculous coincidences on the vague principle that "the past harmonizes with itself" -- but it's all internally consistent, which is more than you can say for a lot of time travel stories. It also gives a pretty good sense of what it would be like for a 21st century guy to end up back in a time when everyone smokes and there is no Google. Admittedly, King's portrayal of the past is tinged with a certain amount of nostalgia, but he doesn't go too overboard with it, and he does try not to ignore the darker aspects of the time. He's clearly done a lot of research, too, but he mostly manages to avoid being too infodump-y with it. He also refuses to indulge in any nutty conspiracy theories, which is rather refreshing. And he does a remarkably good job of anticipating potential objections like, "Why doesn't he just kill Lee Harvey Oswald in '58 and call it a day?" and answering them in believable ways.

Now, the negative. This book's biggest problem is one that a lot of King's works have these days: it's too damned long. I don't mind reading an 850-page novel if there's actually 850 pages worth of story, or if the characters or the writing are compelling enough to keep those pages flying by. But the story in this one drags terribly, and the main character and the writing style are both unobjectionable but bland.

There are some other flaws, too. I had a few issues with the love story that's a central part of the book, although that's hardly uncommon for me when it comes to fictional romances. There's a long, gratuitous, painfully self-indulgent crossover with King's novel It early in the book that should have been the first thing on the editorial chopping block. And, between this and a couple of other recent-ish things of King's I've read lately, I find that I'm losing patience with the way he uses men beating or murdering their wives, girlfriends, or exes as his go-to trope whenever he wants to shock or to tag someone as the designated bad guy. It's begging to feel cheap, and to make me slightly uncomfortable in ways other than the ones King intends.

But, really, the main problem is the flabby pacing, the felt-like-it-took-me-50-years-to-read-it length, and the way that, for much of the book, at least, any actual suspense about either Jake's mission or the course of his personal life gets muffled under the sheer weight of all those pages. This was never going to be a five-star novel, but cut it down to half its size, and you'd have a consistently entertaining read. As it is, well...

Rating: an ungenerous 3/5

Great review of 11/22/63, Betty. I'm certainly interested in the book's topic, and I thought about reading it this month alongside one of my colleagues at work, but I'll pass on it given your comments about it.

I should perhaps note that, based on the other reviews I've seen, a lot of people seemed to like it much better than I did, and I suspect a lot of the difference lies in just how much one is bugged by the draggy pacing. Probably I'm just more impatient than some. But, still, it's frustrating to me to think how much better the book could have been with some judicious editing. If it were only less bloated, I'd definitely recommend it to those interested in the topic.

I love well written tomes; The Luminaries was nearly as long as 11/22/63, and it will likely end up as my favorite novel of 2013. However, a flabby door stopper that goes on and on is utter torture; my least satisfying book of the year will probably be The Kills by Richard House, which was also chosen for this year's Booker Prize longlist. At over 1000 pages it was at least 500 pages too long.

OUCH! 500 pages too long! What a drag, to put it mildly!

Yep. It was definitely the biggest waste of time I've ever spent reading a book for pleasure.

I seem to recall hearing good things about The Luminaries, including that it reads remarkably fast for a book of that size. Which is utterly wonderful, when it works. My own best example is Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True. I remember being almost unable to put it down to do little things like work and sleep, and that thing was huge.

11/22/63 sounds like such a great idea for a story. It's too bad it didn't quite work for you. Someone mentioned that King can be a little "wordy" but this sounds like 1/2 book + 1/2 filler.

I'm sure zillions of other people have made this same observation, but I think these days King suffers very badly from the fact that nobody is going to tell him to cut his stuff down, because no matter how wordy he is, it'll sell.

122. Once Upon a Time: Behind the Magic produced by Titan Books



A companion book to the TV series Once Upon a Time, a show of which I am almost embarrassingly fond. It features interviews with all of the main cast members, as well as the writers, producers, and the various people in charge of costumes, props, special effects, and music. There are also short episodes guides for the first two seasons. (The write-ups for season one are pretty minimal and consist of little more than blurbs, but the season two entries are considerably more detailed.)

There's not a whole lot here that I found particularly revelatory or new, having already seen various interviews on the internet, watched all the extras on the DVDs, and spent way too much of my own time thinking about the show's character developments. But it's a pleasant enough way to kill a couple of hours, if you happen to be a fan. And it's very visually appealing, with glossy pages and lots of color pictures.

One mildly disappointing thing is that, even though the book just came out, and we're now on season three, most of the text seems to have been written about midway through season two, so there's very little discussion of any of the extremely interesting events that happened after that. Oh, well. Maybe they'll release a follow-up volume sometime.

Rating: 3.5/5

Once Upon a Time is a great family favorite at our house, although I am the only one to love Rumplestiltskin.

But Rumplestiltskin in the best character out of all of them! Robert Carlyle's acting constantly impresses the heck out of me.

And there just aren't that many shows, are there, that work that well as family viewing. I don't have kids, but my sister's been watching it with her son via Netflix, and she likes it because it's practically the only thing they enjoy watching together.

I thought it had been quiet here between 26 October and the 3rd November and now I know that was because you were slogging through Stephen King's 11/22/63. Thanks for the review, because if I ever get round to reading a Stephen King novel it won't be this one.

ARgh! Just catching up and realizing all the fun I've been missing. You've done some fabulous reading!

We've packed it in with Once Upon a Time around here. It was just a bad sign when the only characters we liked were the Evil Queen and Mr Gold/Rumplestiltskin. Speaking of them, all the neighbourhood scenes are filmed close to where I live, which makes for a surreal experience when we watch the show and see one of my daughter's best friend's houses in the background. Mr. Gold's house (403 St Georges St, New Westminster, BC) has gone up for sale a few times over the past decade--I can't remember the price but close to $2 million I think. The houses for the film the Diary of a Wimpy Kid are the next block over, so it's fun to think of them as neighbours. Another fun fact, the scenes for the town are shot in Steveston, which is over 30 km away, so they all have a longer commute to work than it appears on the show.

>104 baswood:: Yes, that was the reason! Well, after the all the rapid-fire reading I did earlier in October, I suppose I was due for a bit of a slowdown.

And, yes, I would most definitely not recommend that one as a first exposure to King. Something like The Shining would be a much better choice.

>105 Nickelini:: Welcome to the thread! Overlong Stephen King tomes aside, I have been rather a happy little reader of late!

Aww, it's too bad you gave up on Once, but I do kind of understand it. It's such an odd show, with such an weird mix of the clever and the, well, kind of corny. Plus, parts of the first season were way too annoyingly soapy, but thank goodness they got past that. Me, I like all of the characters, but there's no doubt that Rumple and Regina are the best. That show really knows how to do villains, in large part because, horribly evil as they are, you often can't help sympathizing with them kind of a lot.

Your daughter's friend lives in Storybrooke! That's rather wonderful. And, hey, I'm not surprised Mr. Gold lives in a $2 million house. I think Regina did promise him one as part of their deal. :)

It is really weird to see places you know well on TV, or in movies something I never realized until I started watching Breaking Bad, as this part of the country is not exactly a popular setting.

123. Dodger by Terry Pratchett



Dodger is a poor but clever lad who makes his living hunting for coins and other valuables in the sewers of Victorian London, and sometimes also by "finding" items that people happen to have carelessly misplaced in their homes or their pockets. It's a fairly quiet life, until one night when he intervenes to save a young woman from a beating and finds himself drawn into an adventure involving a runaway princess, an assassin, and various important and interesting people, including, of course, Charles Dickens.

I don't know if I'd put this up there with the best of Pratchett's novels. Mainly because it took until somewhere near the end before the main character and the plot really started to thoroughly engage me, although I admit that might have as much or more to do with me being in a distracted state of mind while reading it as anything else. And I think I might just like Pratchett a little better when he's writing in a fantasy setting, rather than a (more or less) historical one; it gives freer reign to his creative imagination.

But there are moments in here -- quite a few of them, in fact -- that are as funny and clever and insightful as anything Pratchett's ever written, which is a high standard, indeed. I must say, there are also a few moments when he seems to repeat a joke or a phrase or a piece of information, and it's usually a very minor thing, but it leaves me uncomfortably wondering whether that's a deliberate stylistic choice or a sign of his early onset Alzheimer's. Which is a question I really hate having in my head. In general, though, this novel demonstrates that, so far, the guy's still got it. And very glad I am to see it!

Rating: 4/5

124. Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz



Gene Kranz was a flight director at NASA, working in mission control in the pioneering days of the US space program, from the first Mercury flights all the way through the final Apollo mission. (If you've seen the movie Apollo 13, he's the guy who was played by Ed Harris. You might remember him wearing an eye-catching white vest, a detail that, like many of that movie's details, was commendably accurate.)

Kranz talks in great detail about his time in mission control, about all the personal and technological requirements of the job, all the things that went right and the things that went wrong, the emotional moments and the times when everybody had to shove their emotions aside and concentrate on their jobs. It's interesting stuff, at least if, like me, you're the sort of person who can never get enough when it comes to this exciting (and, sadly, perhaps never to be repeated) era of humanity's exploration of space. And it's left me with a new and deeper appreciation of all these guys on the ground who made the whole thing work. Clearly they, too, had their own brand of the right stuff.

I will say that I wouldn't exactly recommend this book as a first introduction to the subject of early manned spaceflight in the US. For that, I'd suggest Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, or perhaps Michael Collins' 1970s memoir Carrying the Fire. But if it's a topic you're interested in and already know a little bit about, and particularly if you're interested on a rather different perspective on it, it is very much worth a read.

Rating: 4/5

>108 bragan: That one goes on the WL immediately! :)

>109 avidmom:: Yay!

Kranz's fellow flight director and boss, Chris Kraft, also wrote a book about his mission control experiences, Flight: My Life in Mission Control, which I remember being good, as well, although it's been long enough since I've read it that I don't recall most of the details. Which is too bad, as it could be really interesting to compare the two accounts.

125. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan



Mr. Penumbra's is no ordinary bookstore. Indeed, the fact that it's open 24 hours is the least weird thing about it. Despite the shelves that stretch up to dizzying heights, it sells very few books. Instead, it mostly lends mysterious volumes out to a collection of devoted eccentrics, all of whom seem to be engaged in some all-consuming secret project. Clay, the newly hired night clerk, takes this in stride; mostly he's just happy to have a job. But when he takes it upon himself to build a 3D computer model of the store, things start to get really strange...

The story here is a bit ridiculous, to be honest. But it's breezy and geeky (which is always a good thing for me) and fun. As a major bibliophile and a minor technophile, I love the way it combines and embraces both of those things. And art lovers, fantasy fans, cryptography enthusiasts, and, perhaps most especially, typography nerds will all find something here for them, too.

Rating: 4/5

>111 bragan: that sounds like fun.

It was a fast, entertaining read.

126. Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who edited by Deborah Stanish & LM Myles



With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who just around the corner and the celebrations already well underway, this seemed like the perfect time to pull this book off the shelf. It's actually a follow-up volume of sorts to Chicks Dig Time Lords, a collection of personal essays by female Doctor Who fans. This one also features essays by women, but this time each one focuses on a particular season of the show, covering the entire span of Whovian history.

You'd probably expect such a collection to take a linear approach, starting with season one and working its way up through the most recent episodes of the new series, but instead these essays are in no discernible order at all. It's an odd choice, but appropriate for a show that describes time as a "big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff," and it works surprisingly well.

The essays themselves range from unabashed fangirling to careful analysis of thematic elements, which considerably more of the latter than the former. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a great many of them deal with gender issues in one form or another, but the writers seem to have been left free to focus on whatever aspects of their individual season they like, and there's a fair amount of variety as a result.

I don't know that there's anything here that strikes me as extremely memorable or insightful, but almost all of these pieces are thoughtful and reasonably interesting, and it's rather nice to see such a diversity of perspectives on the show. I'm also quite impressed by the balanced way in which almost all these authors manage to embrace both a deep affection for the series and a willingness to accept and analyze its faults. Far too often, fans seem to exhibit either the kind of love that regards any criticism as a personal attack or the kind of bitter hate that leads to wails of "Now they've completely gone and ruined it!", and it's always a relief to be reminded that there are people perfectly capable of inhabiting a middle ground between the two.

I should probably note that this is definitely a book aimed at hardcore Who fans, as it often tends to assume that you're familiar with the episodes and characters and ideas it's referencing. While I wouldn't exactly call it essential reading, even for said hardcore fans, it is interesting enough to be worth a look for Whovians of any gender.

Rating: 3.5/5

127. The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues by Ellen Raskin



Art student Dickory Dock -- yes, it's her real name, and, yes, she's heard the nursery rhyme more than enough times -- takes a job as an assistant to a hack artist who likes to don a deerstalker and solve crimes, and who also has a large collection of disguises, some shady associates, and a great big secret.

This is the third of the trio of Ellen Raskin books I bought as a set a while back, and I thought it was the only one of the three I hadn't read as a kid. Apparently I was wrong about that, though, as a few elements here were familiar enough to make me certain I had in fact read it at some point. I think I can kind of see why kid-me found it less memorable than Raskin's other books, though, as adult-me sort of agrees. There is a lot of cleverness here, but much of it strikes me as just a bit too silly. It's also a bit all over the place, as if it's trying to be an over-the-top comedy, and an actual mystery involving false identities and blackmail and genuine emotion, and a commentary of sorts on art and perception all at once, but not entirely succeeding at blending them all together. Then again, it's entirely possible I just wasn't in quite the right mood or the right mindset while reading it.

Rating: 3/5

128. Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You by Jerome Groopman, MD and Pamela Hartzband, MD.



I think the subtitle of this book my be a little bit misleading. If you're hoping for detailed advice on how to navigate the healthcare system and how to decide on specific medical treatments, you may find this isn't quite what you're looking for. It does have some potentially useful advice on different ways to think about those decisions, and on evaluating medical statistics, but mostly its focus is on the general importance of tailoring healthcare to the individual patient, and on the difficult and complicated nature of doing so.

The authors' main contention is that everyone, doctor or patient, has their own set of values when it comes to making their healthcare choices. Some people want the most aggressive healthcare possible, treating even vague potential problems as soon as there's any reason to think they might become an issue. Others prefer a more minimalist approach, preferring not to intervene in their body's workings without a truly compelling reason to do so. Groopman and Hartzband believe very firmly that it's important to take these mindsets into account and for doctors to respect and work with them. They also point out that while science can give us statistical information about which treatments are most likely to have which effects, only the individual can make value judgments about those effects. For instance, a drug's potential side effects may be quite acceptable to one person, but deeply problematic for another.

There are a lot of things, of course, that make all this decision-making intensely complicated. There can be vast amounts of uncertainty about what is likely to help, what is likely to hurt, and when it's best simply to do nothing at all. People are often very bad at predicting how possible medical outcomes will affect their quality of life. And then there are all the complex ethical questions of what to do when a patient isn't in a position to tell anyone what they want. (The book cites some really rather depressing studies and anecdotes suggesting that advance directives, which are supposed to make decision-making easier in a crisis, often really don't.)

All of this is illustrated with lots of personal stories, because, as the authors point out, stories have much more of an influence on us than statistics do. Which, of course, can also be a problem, as hearing one horror story -- or success story -- about a particular treatment can sway our decision-making far more than is necessarily justified.

The book makes some really good and thoughtful points on what is surely an extremely important topic, and uses science as well as stories to back up its points. Generally, it's good, and it's definitely worth reading. But I do have two quibbles with it.

First, in all these discussions of people making healthcare choices, some very important practical considerations seem to get left out. We read about a guy debating which of two top specialists to see, one of whom is apparently in a different part of the country than he is, but there aren't really any stories about people who have to deal with limited choices based on what their insurance will cover, or whether they have the wherewithal to travel, or live in a rural area with a limited choice of doctors. Maybe an in-depth discussion of this kind of thing is outside the scope of the book, but it would have been nice to have at least some acknowledgment that when it comes to healthcare, there are considerations other than medical statistics and personal preference that most of us also have to deal with.

The second quibble is a rather bigger one, namely that the authors don't draw a clear line between medical treatments that are based on some degree of actual evidence, however messy and uncertain that evidence may be, and pseudo-scientific alternative medicine treatments that have no valid basis at all. While that's not a subject they go into in any depth, they do seem, in their enthusiasm for respecting patients' own values and mindsets, to be positioning those two things as equally valid ends on a spectrum of preference, which I really don't see as justifiable.

Rating: 3.5/5

I have never heard the term Whovian history before. Is that one for the fans or did you invent it. It's kinda neat.

Well, "Whovian" is a common fan term used both as a noun to describe fans of the show, and as an adjective to describe all things Doctor Who. So, no, I cannot claim to have invented that particular phrase, really. It does have a nice sound to it, though doesn't it?

The comparison between advanced directives and reality came up in Five Days at Memorial in some interesting ways. Sounds like Medical Mind had a lot of food for thought. I really like to see the research and the numbers and look at causation vs. correlation. Unfortunately, then I still find myself saying I don't care - I'm doing this. I'd like to think it is based upon the information of the present moment and situation, but........

Great reviews.

Thanks!

I have to admit, I like to think I base my own medical decisions on careful research and solid scientific thinking and a careful evaluation of my own needs... But, really, when it comes down to it, no matter how much preparation I do, I always seem to end up just sort of going along with whatever my doctor suggests.

Well maybe you picked a very good doc who knows you well!

Nah, I'm just suggestible. :)

>117 baswood:, 118 tomorrow is the official 50th anniversary, broadcasts everywhere.

Yup! I'd be very pleased by the fact that BBC America is actually broadcasting the 50th Anniversary Special here at the same time it's showing in the UK, except that I'm on night shift tonight and will probably still be asleep then. Oh, well. That's what DVRs were invented for!

LOL! That is truly and utterly wonderful.

I want to party like a Time Lord! :)

Avid, Where do you get these great images? :)

129. Prize Stories 1997: The O. Henry Awards edited by Larry Dark



As the title suggests (in an awkward, weirdly backwards sort of way), this is a collection of the winners and runners-up in the 1997 O. Henry Award for short stories. Unsurprisingly, given that fact, they're all well-written, thoughtful, carefully crafted things. But... Well, they are very much part of what I think has to be called "the literary genre," and reading them does remind me that I often have some issues with this particular kind of writing. There were moments, as I read through these, when I couldn't help thinking that the author had prioritized cleverness of structure or originality and vividness of language over actually having things to say, and several more instances when I finished a story and found myself thinking, as I often do when people ramble on at me in person, "And you're telling me all this... why?" I can't remotely call any of them bad, but I can call a number of them vaguely unsatisfying. Then again, just when I'd get to the point of thinking, "Well, I guess these are somewhat interesting individually, but there may just be a limit to how much of this I really want to read," I'd come across a story like Alice Munro's "The Love of a Good Woman," which is "literary "without sacrificing actual story and does some wonderfully effective things with some very simple language, and I'd feel very glad about having picked this volume up, after all.

Rating: 3.5/5

130. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal



Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter came to the United States at the age of seventeen, and, like many other immigrants and young people, he set about reinventing himself. But he took that idea much further and much more literally than most, concocting for himself a number of socially ambitious alternate identities, including "Christopher Chichester," a member of the British aristocracy, "Christopher Crowe," a big shot Hollywood producer, and "Clark Rockefeller," a member of the Rockefeller family.

He inhabited that last identity for a surprisingly long time, ingratiating himself into the highest of high society and marrying a women who -- astonishingly, given that she was an enormously successful financial consultant -- had no idea, for a very long time, that he was not who he claimed to be and did not have access to the immense wealth he pretended to. His true identity was only unmasked when he was subjected to an in-depth police investigation after he kidnapped his seven-year-old daughter, whom he had lost custody of in his divorce. He was then later tried for a murder committed many years earlier. (That trial had not yet begun when this book was published, in 2011, but Wikipedia tells me that he was, in fact, convicted.)

It's a bizarre, and, in broad outline, utterly fascinating story. And, yet, I found this detailed account of what is known of "Rockefeller"'s life, while interesting enough, not nearly as enthralling as I'd hoped. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. One is that, no matter how much digging the author did, ultimately his subject remains a great big enigma, a giant, frustrating question mark at the heart of his narrative. Who is this guy, really? What on Earth was going on in his head? There seems to be no knowing, no way to get a handle on whoever the "real" Clark Rockefeller or Christian Gerhartsreiter is.

Secondly... Well, I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I think, going into this book, I was hoping to encounter a sort of lovable rogue, that I would find myself at the end saying, "Well, of course, I don't approve of what he did, but, gosh, you have to admire his ability to do it!" But there doesn't seem to be very much about "Rockefeller" to admire. Mostly, he comes across as, well, a great big phony, a man whose only ambition in life was to fake his way into the social circles of the disgustingly over-privileged and the unbearably snooty. And while, by all accounts, he really was a tremendously smart guy, his success in that ambition appears to have not so much to do with intelligence as with the fact that people are predisposed to see what they want or expect to see and are willing to overlook a great deal of bizarre behavior if it comes from someone who appears to be fantastically rich.

I am glad to have read this, anyway, though, if only because it's one of those stories I would never, ever have believed if it were presented in a movie or a novel, and it's always good to be reminded of all the ways in which reality really is just so much weirder than fiction.

Rating: 3.5/5

Boy sounds like you nailed it with "bizarre and utterly fascinating". Great review.

Thanks. It really is amazing what people can get away with!

I remember seeing this guy on the news quite a few times. Something else!

I had never even heard of him! I guess that's what happens when you mostly stop watching the news.

131. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier



A novel based on the life of the famous early nineteenth-century fossil-hunter Mary Anning, who, among other things, unearthed both the first ichthyosaur and the first plesiosaur known to science. Which was no small thing in an era when the very idea the animals could become extinct was highly controversial and often considered blasphemous.

The novel is told partly from Mary's point of view, and partly from that of her friend Elizabeth Philpot (who was also a real person). And a surprising and remarkable friendship it was, given the significant differences in their ages and social classes. There's no grand drama to this story, though, no complicated narrative. It's just a simple tale of two women with a passion for fossils and a keen interest interest in what those fossils might say about the world around us, in a time and place when every social convention made pursuing that sort of interest difficult for women. But it succeeds beautifully at that, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Rating: 4.5/5. Which, objectively, might be a little generous, but I don't care. It hit exactly the right notes to appeal to me, personally, and that, of course, is the important thing!

Rating: 4.5/5. Which, objectively, might be a little generous, but I don't care. It hit exactly the right notes to appeal to me, personally, and that, of course, is the important thing!

I gave Remarkable Creatures a high rating too, and felt as you did that it was probably (technically?) not quite that good. Still, it hit all the right notes for me too and so I stuck with my high rating.

Remarkable Creatures sounds very interesting.

and 134 and 135 it's interesting that you both picked up on something.

It is interesting! And I'm not completely sure what that something was, but it was definitely, well, something! I was thinking that, for me, maybe it was just the right book at the right time, after a run of books I had kind of mixed feelings about.

132. This is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens, and other WTF Research by Marc Abrahams



Marc Abrahams was the founder of the infamous and hilarious Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded each year for research that "first makes you laugh and then makes you think." Which probably gives you a reasonable idea of the contents of this collection of short pieces, all of which originally appeared in The Guardian. Each one is a little glimpse of some odd, amusing, or hard-to-believe piece of research. (E.g.: a study of people's reactions to someone walking around with a shoelace untied, an analysis of the history of Soviet underwear, or a look at the attitude of measurement experts to cheap plastic rulers.) Some of the subjects are clearly just bad science, others are perfectly legitimate research into offbeat topics, and a lot seem to fall somewhere in between. It's entertaining to dip into -- which is probably better than reading it all in a lump -- and Abrahams writes with a pleasantly sly sense of humor. I didn't find the collection, overall, to be quite as much fun as I was hoping for, though, I think mainly because each piece is so short that there's not a lot of room for the "thinking" part. Mostly, I get the sense of him pointing a finger at some scientific oddity or other and basically going, "Here's a quirky thing! Did you see it being quirky? Great, then, bye!"

Rating: 3.5/5

Fun review of This is Improbable Especially Mostly, I get the sense of him pointing a finger at some scientific oddity or other and basically going, "Here's a quirky thing! Did you see it being quirky? Great, then, bye!"

Thanks! Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with, "Look at this quirky thing! OK, bye!" But I might prefer just a little more substance. :)

LOL!

That sounds really fun to me. I love reading about research.

>128 bragan: Very interesting comments on the collection. Do you think that the MFA/MCW degree factory is responsible for some of this?

Oh, I have no idea. Possibly it is, possibly it's just a matter of taste. Possibly it's a certain literary snob factor, the idea that anybody can write a plain sentence or a story with a plot, but elaborately worded stories in which nothing much happens are literature. Likely a lot of it is simply the fact that, especially when I'm an irritable mood, I can find things to be annoyed about in any genre. Literary fiction too often puts too much emphasis on form over content, science fiction too often spews reams of content at you without sparing a second thought to the quality of the prose, etc., etc.

Thank you. I've come to rely on you to provide a suitable title around this time of year so that I can give my SO a book of some sort. Glad to know you are still hard at work. This is Improbable will work well as his dip-into-now-and-again book for his stocking.

Always glad to be of service! :)

133. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff



This is a fantasy novel set at Cornell University (or a slightly more fantastic version thereof). It features, among many others, a dog searching for heaven, a storyteller searching for love, a colony of sprites who are mostly invisible to humans, a couple of meddling Greek deities, and an old evil lying dormant in a graveyard. Also a dragon. Sort of.

It's a fun, offbeat story, full of literary references to everything from Shakespeare to Winnie the Pooh, with a pleasantly ridiculous plot and some surprisingly well-developed characters. Indeed, if I have one complaint about it, it's that so many of the characters whose stories are interlaced together here feel like they really need a novel of their own, uninterrupted by other people's stories, to fully do them justice.

Also, it really made me wish I'd gone to Cornell. I suspect people with an actual connection to the place are likely to enjoy it even more.

Rating: 4/5

Fool on the Hill sounds like fun - even though I didn't go to Cornell. :)

I have a BA from Cornell, so Fool on the Hill is on my Not Available wishlist. Barny Noble doesn't have it in stock.

Robert

>150 Mr.Durick:: That's annoying. I'm sure you should be able to find it somewhere, though. I got it from Amazon a few months ago, so copies of it do exist!

>150 Mr.Durick: Love the idea of a Not Available wishlist. I have an informal one, so naturally nobody knows what's on it and I never find them. Perhaps I should formalize it somehow.

I, for now, keep it at BN.COM. Every once in awhile ABE Books sends a coupon, and I try to clean it out.

Robert

Abe Books is handy. I also find Alibris very handy for otherwise hard-to-find books, too. (And shop with them once, and they will send you coupons until the end of time.)

134. Joss Whedon and Religion: Essays on an Angry Atheist's Explorations of the Sacred edited by Anthony R. Mills, John W. Morehead and J. Ryan Parker



This is a collection of essays that examine Joss Whedon's TV and movie oeuvre -- including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods -- in connection with various religious ideas, stories, and philosophies. Which may seem a little odd, given that Whedon is indeed an atheist and his work surely reflects that worldview more than any other. But, of course, that work does incorporate elements drawn from religious traditions and features themes that are also dealt with by religions, even if not necessarily in the same ways. So there are reasonable and interesting connections to be drawn, and this collection really dives in and does so, whether it's using the incomplete mindwipes depicted in Dollhouse to examine the idea of the human soul, comparing Buffy's actions in the episode "Anne" to the (previously unfamiliar to me) Greek Orthodox story of Jesus' harrowing of Hell, or discussing the extent to which Cabin in the Woods qualifies as nihilistic.

There are a number of different perspectives represented here. Many of the authors are obviously deeply steeped in Christian theology (although they do in general seem to fully respect the idea that Whedon's own perspective is an atheistic one, which as a fellow atheist, I appreciated). But we also get such things as an essay on the nature of Wicca in Buffy and in the real world, and another that uses Firefly as a jumping-off point to discuss secular ethics. A couple of them in fact seemed to have more to do with political philosophy than with religion, but I suppose the line between those two things is rather fuzzier than we usually think.

Overall, I found it an interesting read. Not always an easy one, but generally worth putting in a bit of effort for. Even the essays with which I strongly disagreed -- and there were one or two I had some major problems with -- were highly thought-provoking.

Also, I'm now feeling the strong urge to dig out my old Buffy DVDs again.

Rating: 4/5

(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)

135. Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers



This is the latest in my ongoing, informal, off-and-on project of rereading books I enjoyed as a kid. Although it's possible this one just barely qualifies; I'm fairly certain I did read it at a very young age, but I remembered absolutely nothing about it, including whether I enjoyed it or not. Although it's probably pretty safe to assume I did.

I do remember reading somewhere that the movie version of Mary Poppins softened her character significantly, to the point where P. L. Travers was pretty miffed about it. I haven't seen the movie since I was fairly young, either, so I can't make any specific comparisons, but from what I remember of it, I totally see her point. It's completely impossible to imagine this version of Mary Poppins prancing around singing about spoonfuls of sugar. This Mary Poppins is truly wonderful -- in the sense of being full of wonders -- but she's not exactly nice. Which, being someone with a low tolerance for the saccharine, myself, I quite liked.

This isn't really much of a coherent story, more a loose collection of fantastical anecdotes. But it's cleverly written and lots of fun, and it holds up remarkably well, both for a book written in the 1930s, and for a children's book revisited as an adult.

Rating: 4/5

The Joss Wheedon sounds interesting.

LOL at Alibris coupons!

>157 mkboylan:: It was an interesting collection, if you're a fan of his stuff and like over-analyzing TV shows as much as I do.

And there is a small problem with the Alibris coupons, in that they're inevitably of the "the more you spend, the more you save" type, which is downright dangerous. :)

Mary Poppins is one that has escaped me--don't think I've even seen the movie. However, growing up in the 60s and 70s, she was part of the culture (the saccharine version, anyway). Thanks for your review--this one is going on my wishlist.

I'm not sure I ever even actually set out to watch the movie as a kid. It's one of those things that just sort of randomly happens to you, because it's so much a part of the culture that it's hard to avoid.

Now you've got me wanting to pull out my complete box set of Buffy episodes as well. I've never loved a TV show like I love that one! The book sounds interesting, though I'll probably never get around to reading it. Thanks for the review!

I am always falling in love with TV shows. Some of them deserve it, and some... really don't. But Buffy was some high-quality, highly entertaining TV.

136. I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus by S.G. Browne



A shortish holiday sequel to Browne's Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, which featured zombies who are anything but mindless, even if they are hungry for human flesh. This time, our zombie protagonist escapes from a research lab, disguises himself in a Santa suit, and bonds with a little girl who reminds him of his lost daughter. It's a breezy, fairly entertaining read, with the same kind of very dark humor that the first book had. But I didn't find it nearly as engaging as Breathers, I think in part because it feels pretty slight, and in part because the cannibalism-themed humor and the rather sentimental stuff about the little girl don't necessarily mesh all that smoothly. Still, how can you resist that title?

Rating: 3.5/5

ah the visuals I have in my mind from watching Walking Dead could actually help me to resist that title! But I may check out Breathersand then who knows?

>164 mkboylan:: Fair warning: it is pretty gory. :)

137. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh



Allie Brosh's (now sadly very infrequently updated) blog Hyperbole and a Half is quite possibly the best thing on the entire internet. It may in fact justify the existence of the internet all by itself. If you doubt this fact, go read it right now, and you'll see what I mean. But I hope you've got nothing else to do today, because if you're anything like me, once you start reading it, you will not be able to stop until you have read the entire thing, and then you will be sad that there is no more, and will maybe start to consider going back to read the best bits again.

But in case you're unfamiliar with it and don't have a few hours to spare at the moment, and thus need a little more explanation: Hyperbole and a Half consists mainly of Allie relating hilarious and disturbing anecdotes from her childhood, talking about her dogs (one of which is mentally challenged and the other downright psychopathic) and pondering her own brain and the dysfunctional ways it tries (and often fails) to cope with everyday life. She does this using a combination of incredibly funny words and incredibly funny comic-like illustrations. Her drawing style is entirely unforgettable; her representation of herself is only about one step above a stick figure, and yet somehow it manages to be marvelously expressive. Also funny. Did I mention funny?

Most of the content in this book (although not all of it) is reprinted from the blog, so I'd already read it at least once, and some of it more than once. I still feel like I got my money's worth, though, as it's nice to have it in book form, and most of this stuff gets only the tiniest bit less amusing and engaging the third time you read it.

I'd also say that the entire book is worth it just for her two-part piece about what it's like to deal with depression, which is honest and insightful and extremely effective at explaining what that experience is like, and should be read by anyone who has ever known someone with depression. And, yes, even that somehow still manages to be funny. I can't resist quoting the one bit from that piece that has stuck with me the most ever since I first read it on the blog: "Trying to use willpower to overcome the apathetic sort of sadness that accompanies depression is like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back. A fundamental component of the plan is missing and it isn't going to work." Reading that, I felt like I honestly understood something I never quite entirely got before, at the same time that I couldn't help smiling at the vividly wacky metaphor. And that sort of thing is why Hyperbole and a Half rocks, and why I couldn't not buy the book.

Rating: I'm admittedly rating the blog here as much as I am the book, but I'm giving this one the rare 5/5.

Thanks for that link. I went right to the cake post and just about died laughing. I actually wanted to scroll to the end to start with the ending. But I restrained myself.

The cake story is in the book, and it does not ever get less hilarious.

>167 mkboylan: Great minds think alike - that's exactly where I went too: "The God of Cake." Funny, funny stuff! I'll have to go back & read the rest of them.

>163 bragan: the cannibalism-themed humor and the rather sentimental stuff about the little girl don't necessarily mesh all that smoothly.
That sentence made me laugh out loud - a lot.

Good to know Brosh's book is finally out. Yes, I'll be getting a copy. My favorite is Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.de/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts...

Enjoying the blog

Glad to have brought Hyperbole some new readers!

>170 RidgewayGirl:: That one is also in the book, because how could it not be? I think I laughed until tears came to my eyes the first time I read about the simple dog's magical ability to make food.

Add me to the list of people who bought Hyperbole. I'm giving as a gift.

I think that would make a terrific gift for the right person!

Hyperbole sounds fab, Bragan. Too bad I have found it here too late for my gift-giving...possibly. Great review.

138. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins



I absolutely loved Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, so I was really looking forward to reading this one. Alas, whereas The Moonstone started slow but eventually picked up to the point where I didn't want to put it down, The Woman in White started slow and stayed there. The plot -- which involves a woman whose husband is desperate to get his hands on her money and another woman who happens to look just like her, who has recently escaped from an asylum, and who supposedly knows a secret that could ruin the husband -- is decent enough, in a slightly ridiculous way. And it has at least one really good character, in the person of the glib, deceitful, narcissistic Count Fosco. But it all just draaaaaaags. Maybe that wasn't nearly as noticeable when it was first published, in installments, but that fact doesn't particularly help me much.

Also, it's a bit difficult for me to get really lost in a story when I'm spending much of it feeling unable to concentrate much on anything but how incredibly, deeply grateful I am, as a woman, not to have been born in the 19th century, with its stereotyped views of women's places and women's natures, and its stultifying ideas about the nature of marriage. It is, of course, terribly unreasonable to judge a hundred and fifty year old novel by modern standards, but acknowledging that still doesn't change the fact that it's harder to enjoy a story when I keep thinking about how having to live in its world would make me feel downright suicidal.

Rating: 2.5/5. Which I know is unfair. Objectively, it's probably better than that. But I was just so very tired of it by the end that I can't bring myself to rate it any higher.

Enjoyed your review of The Woman in White I haven't read it and so can't comment on it's dragginess. Hope you have better luck with your reading over Xmas.

I got to curl up with a much better one over Christmas Eve. But the problem there was that, while I didn't want to put the book down, I couldn't keep my eyes open! :)

Happy Holidays to all on Club Read, by the way!

139. The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumière



I suppose this odd little book is best described as a collection of linked short stories. All of them feature a bookstore called Lost Pages, which sells books about histories and myths and creatures that never existed, at least in our world. Collectively they involve a variety of misfit children, visions of a tentacled god of nightmares and the supernatural armies who oppose him, and people who experience encounters -- often sexual ones -- with the uncanny. I'm not sure it quite gels together into a coherent whole, and if it were any longer, that might be annoying, but as short as it is (about 200 smallish pages with good-sized type), the fact that we only get little half-glimpses of this weird reality that seems to exist behind our own works surprisingly well.

It's strange and interesting stuff, and apparently just exactly what I was in the mood for.

Rating: 4/5

140. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art & Design by Daniel Falconer



I haven't had the chance to get out to see the new Hobbit movie yet, but I'm hoping I might manage it this weekend. So this seemed like the perfect time to finally get around to this book I picked up a while back on the art and design of the first one. It covers pretty much all the visual aspects of the film, including settings, props, costumes and character designs. There are plenty of illustrations, obviously, including conceptional art that lets you see the evolution of various design ideas, as well as brief but thoughtful bits of commentary from various people involved in the making of the movie. As always, the level of attention to detail these folks exhibited is astonishing.

It's really very well-put-together and interesting, much more so than books of this kind often are. If you're at all a fan of the movie, I'd say it's well worth a look.

Rating: 4/5

141. Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Fourth Annual Collection edited by Lester Del Rey



For the record, the year in question here is 1974.

Like most anthologies of this kind, this one is very much a mixed bag. Which always rather surprises me, somehow, as if I can never help expecting these best-of-the-year anthologies to feature nothing but truly outstanding, or at least very good stories. But of course, it's pretty much inevitable, given the notorious variability of taste and, in the case of these older volumes, the impossibility of any editor consistently guessing what will or won't stand the test of time.

Well, this one, at least, has the benefit of being interestingly varied. Here's a rundown of the individual stories:

"If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy" by F.M. Busby: A man's consciousness bops back and forth along his own timeline, leaving him to experience the years of his life out of order. It's an intriguing setup, but I've seen this sort of thing (or variations of it) done much better elsewhere. That may be kind of unfair, as for all I know Busby was the first person ever to come up with the idea, but, regardless, my response to this one can mostly be summed up as "meh."

"Sleeping Dogs" by Harlan Ellison: A military commander does stupidly aggressive things while his more peaceable co-worker watches in helpless indignation. The editor describes this as being very low-key for Ellison. Me, I'd say it's surprisingly bland for Ellison. Not to mention terribly unsubtle. Another "meh."

"The Mountains of Sunset, The Mountains of Dawn" by Vonda N. McIntyre: An elderly alien living on a generation ship experiences a painful disconnect with those born on the journey and desires to live only long enough to reach their destination. Now, this one I really liked. I think it hits an often elusive sweet spot when it comes to writing aliens: the main character is, culturally and physiologically, believably non-human, but her feelings and desires are entirely relatable. It makes for a good, moving story.

"Earth Mother" by Carolyn Gloeckner: A woman visits a reproductive facility to request the destruction of her husband's donor sperm after his death, and learns something she would rather not have known. This one was okay. It is, to some extent, an attempt to predict the future of reproductive technology, and, unsurprisingly, it's only minimally successful at that. But it does kinda-sorta anticipate a certain 21st century news headline, so I give it some points for that. And the plot revelation, while it's obvious a mile away, works all right, mainly because it's not drawn out too long.

"Dream Gone Green" by Alan Dean Foster: In a far distant future in which animals have been granted human-like intelligence but are still subordinate to humans, a horse with an ambitious dream makes a business proposition to a young heiress. Some entertaining bits of world-building here, but the plot didn't engage me much, and the characters are sadly underdeveloped. I suspect I might have enjoyed it more if I were more of a horse-lover, though.

"The Night Is Cold, The Stars Are Far Away" by Mildred Downey Broxon: An elderly alien tells the story of his ancestor's encounter with a creature from the sky, and night after night continues to watch the stars, which, depressingly, never seem to change. This one contains some very familiar SF themes -- science vs. religion, aliens trying to figure out scientific concepts as humans learned them in the past -- but it doesn't go in for the usual triumph-of-reason ending. Instead it just sort of... ends. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but it's nicely written, and it's got me thinking a little bit about SF tropes and astronomy and how inevitable scientific progress really is.

"Ad Astra" by Harry Harrison: Human soldiers enact a last-ditch plan against technologically superior alien invaders. It's meant to be gritty and dramatic, but, frankly, it goes a bit over the top. And the dialog is kind of awful. Too bad, because the basic concept of what the humans are up to had at least some potential to be interesting.

"And Name My Name" by R.A. Lafferty: I have no idea what the hell I just read. Something about humanity being firmly and humiliatingly put in its place. More than that, I really cannot tell. I suspect the "R.A." in R.A. Lafferty's name stands for something like "Ridiculously Abstruse."

"What Friends Are For" by John Brunner: A horrible little kid with sociopathic tendencies is put under the care of an alien robot teddy bear nanny. Mildly amusing, I suppose, but it reads a bit too much like Brunner had to spend a day putting up with other people's bratty children and dashed home at the end of it to work out his feelings with a wish-fulfilment fantasy about what would happen if only he were allowed to discipline said kids and how gosh-darned good it would feel to make the awful parents realize how awful they are.

"Mute Inglorious Tam" by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Cornbluth: A portrait of the squalid, limited lot of a fourteenth-century serf. It's pretty good, but, as the editor acknowledges, it's not remotely science fiction. Maybe it is a sort of meta-science fiction, though, as the main character struggles to form ideas, and even to tell stories, about a better future that might be, before he has it all beaten out of him by the oppressive grind of his life.

"The Man Who Came Back" by Robert Silverberg: A man saves for fifteen years to return to Earth from the space colony he's emigrated to, determined to marry the woman he's been carrying a torch for all this time. A sharp, nasty little look at how what's presented to the world as romantic can in fact be deeply, deeply creepy.

"Dress Rehearsal" by Harvey Jacobs: Short, goofy piece about an elderly Jewish comedian who is abducted by aliens and put to work teaching classes about how to blend in on Earth. It's basically a long, kind of stupid joke, but I admit it, I laughed.

"Enter a Pilgrim" by Gordon R. Dickson: This one gives us a look at an Earth ruled by ruthless aliens and one man who is dreaming of -- or perhaps, despite himself, becoming -- a hero who will resist them. There's nothing terribly new here, even for 1974, but it's well written, with believable characterization. Even if the story's central image does rest on an unfortunately implausible detail.

"The Postponed Cure" by Stan Nodvik. So, you have a horrible disease. But that's OK, we can put you into suspended animation until there's a cure! Just be aware it might take a while... Another stupid joke that made me laugh.

"The Birch Clump Cylinder" by Clifford D. Simak: A time machine crashes in a clump of birches on the campus of a small rural college. Or something like a time machine, anyway, something that could achieve amazing things if its energy could be harnessed. An interesting little story, and not without a certain low-key charm. The science is pretty terrible, though.

Rating: 3.5/5

Enjoyed reading through your Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Fourth Annual Collection I was familiar with about half the writers featured, which is usually par for the course with these collections. Only two mehs and a ridiculously abstruse that cant be too bad.

It did turn out to be a considerably better collection than I thought it would be after I read those first couple of stories! I don't know why these things so often seem to lead with weaker entries, but they do. I would say a couple of the others at least come close to the "meh" category, and the Harrison was flawed enough to be close to actively bad. (His style is so much like a parody of typical SF action-adventure writing that it works great when he's writing light and humorous stuff. I was a little dismayed to see how little it changes when he's trying to be serious.) But overall, while hardly full of outstanding stories, it wasn't bad.

I myself recognized all but four of the author names. (Although Busby, I suppose, only just counts, because while I know I've seen his name, I couldn't off the top of my head name anything else he's written.) I'm not sure whether that's really a good thing or not. I suspect it's often true that authors get included in these anthologies based more on the strength of their name than their story. It would certainly explain the subpar Ellison piece here.

142. Prize Fight: The Race and the Rivalry to be the First in Science by Morton A. Meyers



Credit matters a lot to scientists. Actually, I think that pretty much summarizes this entire book in one sentence. It touches on various ways in which the desire for recognition, priority, publication and prize money has caused problems for individual scientists and for science in general, up to and including the extremes of plagiarism and fraud. But mostly it's concerned with disputes over credit. It covers a number of such cases, but spends a lot of the book concentrating on two in particular: the discovery of streptomycin and the development of MRI technology. In both cases, there was a Nobel Prize involved, and a scientist who did not take at all well to being snubbed for said prize.

These specific historical cases are reasonably interesting, but I have to say, much of my reaction to this book is kind of a big, "Well, duh." Of course scientists care about recognition and what that can mean for their careers. Of course those disputes sometimes get bitter, and of course you occasionally get people behaving unethically in this publish-or-perish environment. Because scientists, like the rest of us, are human beings. And Meyers' suggestions for what can be done to improve the situation seem kind of superficial. In particular, he's very keen on the notion that the scientific establishment simply isn't doing enough to encourage and accept "maverick" researchers with unorthodox ideas. And I'm not 100% sure I agree on that point. There is, after all, a very fine line between encouraging innovative thinking and being too willing to embrace ideas that sound crazy because they are crazy.

Rating: 3/5

(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)

Nice review of Prize Fight, Betty; I need to write a review of it soon. I was also underwhelmed by this book (I accidentally rated it as 4 stars instead of 3, as you did). I was interested to learn more about the Selman Waksman controversy, as I graduated from Rutgers and majored in Microbiology; other than that I found it a bit of a drag, and I also thought that the author's points and suggestions were all too obvious.

"Underwhelming" is a pretty good word for it. It was okay, but there just wasn't a whole lot there. I find myself sort of wondering exactly what the author hoped to accomplish with it.

Credit matters a lot to scientists.
Yes. I learned this from The Big Bang Theory - especially Sheldon and his lifelong goal of the Nobel Prize and top billing on anything published. And they say TV isn't educational. *snort*

Heh. I'm not sure how representative Sheldon is of... well, anything. But, yes. :)

143. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Completely Fantastical Edition by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black



In the wake of their parents' divorce, the three Grace siblings have just moved into a rambling, decrepit old house that once belonged to their great-aunt. But they soon find that they and their mother are not the only ones living there: there's a faerie creature making its home in the walls, and a varied multitude of others nearby. And all of them want something the Grace children have...

For a while, I thought this was going to be the kind of kids' story that's a little too simply written to have a whole lot of appeal to adult me beyond provoking thoughts like, "Hey, I bet I would have liked this when I was young" and "I wonder if I know any kids who might enjoy it?" But, rather to my surprise, I eventually found myself becoming quite wrapped up in the story. It doesn't have a terribly complex plot, and the fantasy elements aren't trying to be anything staggeringly original. But it's a good, solid children's tale, nicely enhanced by a lot of pleasant illustrations.

This particular edition is an omnibus volume whose contents were originally published as five separate books. This is definitely the way to read them, though, as it's all one continuous story. The individual books are very short, and don't stand on their own at all; I think it would be pretty unsatisfying to read them with significant gaps in-between.

There's also some bonus material included here: Three additional "chapters" filling in some background to the main story, some extra sketches and a bit of commentary from the illustrator, and a gallery of illustrations provided by other artists who were invited to demonstrate how they would have envisioned the story. That last, I think, is a nifty idea, and produced some rather cool results.

Rating: 4/5

You've done some amazing reading this year, Betty.

Happy New Year!

It's been an interesting reading year. I'm looking forward to another one!

Happy New Year!

144. How to Live With a Neurotic Cat by Stephen Baker



A short, humorous book about neurotic cats -- "A recent census among cats shows that approximately 100 percent are neurotic. That estimate is probably on the low side." -- and how to live with them, presented in words and cartoons. The humor is a bit uneven, but it gave me a few chuckles. I do believe that great advances in the field of cat-based humor have been made since this was published in1985, though.

Rating: 3.5/5

And I do believe that is going to be the last book I finish in 2013! Hey, 144 books, that's a nice, square number.

I still need to set up a thread for my 2014 reading. I'll do that sometime in the hopefully not too distant future. Here's to another year of books!

The only time cats aren't neurotic is when they're asleep. Even that's iffy. LOL!

Happy New Year!

I believe that is pretty much the book's position, too. :)

Happy New Year!

And, OK, my new 2014 thread is up and can be found here. See you all there for the new year!